If Janice Had Died
by tinuelena
Summary: Four years after Claire brought the specials into the spotlight, Sylar must keep a promise to his friend Peter and stop Matt Parkman from ending an innocent life.


A/N: Wrote this as a warmup exercise. Heroes fic was inevitable when I saw the name in the writing prompt:

**Flash Fiction Prompt #48****: Beginnings are important. Sometimes starting with an unexpected and contrasting statement is a good way to grab a reader's attention. That said, begin with this sentence: "If Janice had died, this would be so much easier…"**_  
_

xx

_ If Janice had died, this would be so much easier._ The thought ran through his head like a mantra. Gabriel—he no longer went by Sylar, it was always Gabriel now— held his breath and knocked on the front door of the Parkman house.

Peter's instructions had been clear. _Don't leave until Parkman is dead. _He hadn't killed in years, not since becoming friends with Peter, not since settling down with Claire, not since little Noah was born. He'd put his life as Sylar behind him. But he had a responsibility to Nate.

Janice answered. "Gabriel! It's nice to see you. Come on in!"

He stepped through the door with a smile.

xx

_ "You made it!" Peter embraced him. "Meet your godson."_

_ Smiling, Gabriel approached the hospital bed, where Emma cradled a newborn infant dressed in a powder-blue onesie. "He's beautiful," he said, turning his head so Emma could read his lips. "Congratulations. What's his name?"_

_ "Nathan Gabriel," Peter replied._

_ "I don't deserve that."_

_ Peter exchanged smiles with his wife and patted his friend on the shoulder. "Yes, you do. We move forward."_

xx

"Would you like some coffee?" Janice sailed into the kitchen. "I just made a fresh pot."

"That would be great," replied Gabriel. He ran his hand through his hair, looking at the family photos on the wall. "Little Matt's really grown."

"He won the kindergarten spelling bee this year," Janice said, and Gabriel could hear the smile in her voice. "Spelled the word 'kitten' correctly. He's so bright." She came back into the dining room and handed him a steaming mug. "How's Noah doing?"

"Took his first steps last week," Gabriel said, unable to stop the proud smile. "Claire managed to get it on video."

They sat down at the table. It was silent until Janice spoke. "Do you still have the nightmares?"

"Every so often."

"Matt has them, too."  
"So does Claire."

"Do you think they'll ever stop on their own?"

Gabriel stared into his coffee. "I can't erase the images from my mind," he replied. "I don't think I'll ever _not _be haunted by what happened there."

xx

_ Sylar awoke. He was a body in a sea of bodies, trapped in a long hallway, shackled to a slab of metal. It was worse than Level 5. Claire Bennet was across from him, Matt and Janice Parkman to his left, a heavily-inked teenager he didn't know on his right._

_ They had harnessed Rene's power. If they hadn't, they'd have a riot on their hands. Sylar felt doubly naked without his abilities._

_ "Parkman."_

_ He didn't respond._

_ "Your wife has a power?"_

_ Silence._

_ "Jesus, Parkman, we have to work together to get out of here."_

_ Claire answered for him. "She can speed up or slow down time."_

_ Sylar wanted to ask when it manifested, but he had a feeling he knew, and he'd rather Janice go on thinking it was her husband that had given her that long and unforgettable night._

_ Two scientists approached with a tray. "Gabriel Gray. 50 cc's." The younger man injected Sylar with a serum. There was no sleeve to pull up; the subjects had no clothes. _

_ Claire shook violently. "Please don't. Please. Not today. Please."_

_ "Claire Bennet," said the older man. "150 cc's."_

_ Tears streaked her face. "No. Please—"_

_ "Leave her alone," Gabriel demanded._

_ The men paid no attention. The younger one selected a syringe and pushed a blue liquid into Claire's veins. Her screams echoed down the corridor; those who weren't awake opened their eyes._

_ "Get it off, it burns, it itches… please!" She thrashed in her shackles, but couldn't bring fingernails to skin for a release. _

_ Every atom inside Gabriel was charged with raw hatred. He was used to being listened to. He was used to being feared. He was—_

—_free. He looked at his wrists in disbelief. He had his powers back. _

_ With a flick of his finger, the scientists were dead and Claire was free of her shackles, then Parkman and his wife, then the teenager, then the rest._

_ Claire stole a lab coat from one of the dead scientists and wrapped it around herself. "Thank you, Gabriel," she said earnestly as they fled, and the significance of her use of that name was not lost on either of them._

xx

"I heard Matt was working on a project to get rid of the nightmares."

Janice looked up. "Who told you that?"  
"Peter did. He said Matt had called, wondering if he could use Nate's power."

"Oh, yes. Matt was disappointed about that. I understand, though… I wouldn't let anyone use little Matt's on-and-off switch for some experiment, either, and Nate would have had to draw some awful things."

"Maybe I could help," Gabriel suggested. "Is he still set up for it? Would you mind if I took a look?"

"That'd be great! It's in the basement. Come on downstairs."

xx

_ "He's in danger. You're the only one who can save him."_

_ "Peter, I stopped using my powers. It's too much of a temptation. I don't want to become Sylar again. Call the police."_

_ "You know him. You know what he did to you. He's desperate."_

_ "It's our only hope of seeing him again," Emma said. "Please, Gabriel."_

xx

Sylar followed Janice into the basement, down the familiar stairs. He set eyes on the brick wall in front of him; five years he'd spent trapped there, alone with Peter, forging a friendship that would change them both forever.

Another wall had been erected next to it. "Matt's a bit slow on his home improvement projects, isn't he?" said Gabriel, trying to keep the tone light as he approached the wall.

Janice smiled. "Oh, you know. He gets excited about a wall and puts it up in a day, then gets excited about something else and forgets all about finishing."

"Or he gets too excited and accidentally bricks up an outlet with something still plugged in," Gabriel commented, noticing the wire sticking out from dried mortar. His eyes followed it to the machine. "This is Matt's solution to the nightmares?" he asked casually.

Janice nodded.

"And he needed Nate's power."

"That's what he said."

"He needed to run the blood."

Janice stepped over to the machine. "I don't know. I never really asked him about the science of it all. I think he reached a standstill after Mohinder stopped helping."

"Did it ever occur to you that Mohinder quit because Matt was out of control?"

xx

_"Go on, Nate. Show Gabriel what you can do."_

_ The two-year-old grinned. He pulled out a sheet of paper and made a crude sketch of the teddy bear in the windowsill, then covered it with his hands. Gabriel watched, astonished, as the teddy bear popped out of existence._

_ "He can make things disappear," Gabriel said._

_ "A potentially dangerous ability," replied Peter._

_ "But he's got parents that will teach him not to use it for evil." Gabriel smiled. _

_ "Not only that, he can put things back."_

_ At his dad's request, Nate scribbled out the teddy bear and repeated the motion with his hands. It reappeared in the window, and Nate clapped his hands. _

xx

"Out of control? What do you mean?"

Gabriel lifted the thick cord. Out of the end came an assortment of tubes and wires that fed the machine. One of the tubes was filled with a thick red liquid.

Janice's eyes widened. "I don't understand."

"Your husband," Gabriel told her, "must be a real Edgar Allan Poe fan." He put his ear to the newly built wall. The mortar was not yet hard. Unused to using powers, he looked for something with which to scrape out the mortar; then he thought better of it and raised a finger.

Carefully, he cut through the brick, mindful of what was behind it. Janice watched in horror as the wall crumbled to reveal a child, still living, face stained with dirt and tears.

He coughed. "Gabriel?"

"You're all right, Nate. Don't worry. Let me just get these out." He carefully slid the needle from his arm; blood stopped running through the little tube.

"I'm cold."

"You'll be fine. We're going straight to see Claire, okay?"

"I want Mommy."

"She's with Claire. So is Daddy."

Janice was rooted to the spot.

"Go get a blanket," Gabriel demanded, and Janice turned to go up the stairs, but was stopped by her husband.

"You're not going to take him," Matt said.

Gabriel turned. "I am bringing Nate back to his parents. This ends now."

"No, you can't, I have to stop these dreams, I re-live that place every night… it's terrible, you don't _know…_"

"I have the same nightmares, Matt." Gabriel's voice was even. "But you can't steal the life and innocence of a child to get rid of them."

"I'm not letting either of you leave."

Janice's eyes were round. "Matt, what are you saying? What have you _done?"_

xx

_"Come on!" They ran, barefoot and naked, into the winter air._

_ Claire offered her lab coat to Janice. "Here," she said. "My skin will regenerate from frostbite. Yours won't."_

_ Indestructible, their feet safe from the stinging cold of the snow, Gabriel and Claire led the refugees. Janice tightened the coat around her, the white camouflaging her into the blizzard._

_ A flurry of tranquilizer darts flew over their heads. _

_ "We have to protect the others," said Claire automatically. _

_ Impervious to the effects of tranquilizers and bullets, Gabriel and Claire turned to rescue the fallen. Eli was shot—no, not Eli, just one of his duplicates. The real Eli flashed a grin as he ran past. _

_ A bullet whizzed past Gabriel's ear and hit Janice in the shoulder._

_ Immediately, Gabriel grabbed her and hefted her onto his shoulder._

_ "Don't you touch her!" barked Matt._

_ "I'm saving her life," Gabriel snapped back. "Come on. You're going to have to run harder than that to make it out of here."_

_ "I don't care. Don't touch her. I'll take her."_

_ "The snow doesn't hurt me. You're going to lose feeling in your feet soon. She's safer with me."_

_ "God damn it, give her to me!"_

_ Gabriel reluctantly stopped and let Matt take his wife. _

_ "Come on," urged Claire, "we have to keep running."_

_ They ran and ran until they separated from the large group and peeled off in a separate direction._

_ "My feet," Matt groaned, hoarse. "I can't walk. I can't—" He stumbled._

_ "Let me take Janice," Gabriel pleaded. "Worry about yourself. Let me worry about her."_

_ "You will never touch her," snapped Matt, then swayed and fell, sending Janice headfirst into a tree._

xx

"Janice. This is for your own sanity. I'm just trying to look out for you."

Janice remembered the snow, the broken nose she'd suffered when Gabriel tripped and pitched her into a tree, face-first. She remembered Matt's diligence in dressing her gunshot wound. Yet the memories were fuzzy. Strange. "What about his safety?" she choked out, jerking a thumb at Nate. "I'm going to get that child a blanket, and you are going to step aside."

Matt tilted his head. Gabriel lifted his hand; Matt's feet came off the floor.

"No," Gabriel said. "I'm not going to let you do that anymore."

"Gabriel—" Janice went toward him. "What are you doing? Don't hurt him."

"He's been pushing thoughts for far too long," Gabriel told her. "On you, on others—it stops now."

"What are you going to do?"

"Janice, go cover Nate's eyes. Don't you look, either."

Her eyes filled with tears. "Gabriel—"

"Sylar, you sick son of a bitch, you said you didn't do this anymore!" spat Parkman.

"Sick? A man who imprisons living people behind brick walls doesn't have room to judge me for being sick. A man who would transfer the memories of one man into another. The mind games you play are bad enough without trapping a child behind a wall. Don't you remember what it's like to be a medical experiment? How do you think Nate feels?"

Janice sobbed in the corner, putting her own cardigan around Nate's shoulders.

"Goodbye, Matt." He lifted a finger.

Janice collapsed in the corner, crying hysterically.

Matt's screams filled the house.

xx

_ "Thank God you're all right." Matt squeezed his wife's hand. Claire and Gabriel had dressed her gunshot wound._

_ "We'll spend the night here," Gabriel decided. _

_ It was a comfortable home they'd broken into, and the fire in the library roared. Gabriel's eyes scanned the bookshelves. "The owner has good taste in literature." He nodded toward the shelves. _"Pillars of the Earth._ One of my favorites."_

_ "I never was one for reading," Claire admitted, "though I liked the Jane Austen book I read in high school."_

_ "Edgar Allan Poe," Matt said after a long while. "Short stories, not poems."_

_ Janice stared into the fire. "Sylvia Plath."_


End file.
